


Scale and Bone

by intolaurel



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Character Death, Death Scene, Human!Smaug, readerxsmaug, shape-shifter!reader, shape-shifter!smaug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 18:00:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7448869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intolaurel/pseuds/intolaurel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Smaug is a shape-shifter who can alternate between a dragon and human form. After succombing to the dragon sickness he decided to stay in his dragon form forever, but he changes his mind when he's dying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scale and Bone

He saw you soar above him. You had won.

He had never thought that he would come across another shape-shifting dragon again. Certainly not one that was stronger than him. But there you were flying, and here he was, falling to his death. The ice-cold water of the lake coming closer and closer every second. Dragons couldn't survive cold. Not that he would survive his wound if he was plummeting towards a sun-heated dessert. You did your job to good for that. And with the perfect piece of teamwork with the humans you had killed the only one who was still like you. 

There used to be many shape-shifters who could turn into dragons. They had once lived in a far away land amongst humans and other creatures. No king, no evil, no cold had ever dared to step foot inside their borders. That was, until his brother got the dragon sickness.

Of course, the dragon sickness was a well-known illness in those parts. But not because of the many dragons, it was because of the humans. Every year there were at least a few who would fall ill after spending to much time in the mines with the shape-shifters, or after laying eyes upon one of their sacred temples. The humans were all quickly cured after they got sick, but a dragon getting the dragon sickness - that was unheard of. 

His brother had flown away to a nearby kingdom to discuss trade matters with the merchants there. His intentions were pure and he did what his people expected of him until he had laid eyes upon the treasure chamber of the king. Seeing that much gold in one place fuelled his natural desire for obtaining it. 

It is said that, after laying just one look upon those treasures, he had changed into his dragon form and burned everyone who had tried to stop him or take something from the pile of gold. 

A messenger with the news of his brothers actions had reached them a week after the event had occurred. Smaug couldn't remember exactly what it was that the human had said, he could only remember the shame and the humiliation in his parents eyes. 

He had begged them to let him go after his brother. To seek him out and to talk to him. To make him return to his human form and come back home with him. At first his parents didn't want to let him go out of fear that he would succumb to the same faith his brother had. But after weeks and months of him bestowing his pleas upon his parents, with at the same time the growing threat from the humans to the family, they had finally agreed to let him go.

Smaug had set out that same day. When he flew of in his dragon form everyone had hoped to see him coming back with his brother before the end of the month. Little did they know that they would never see either again, nor that they would see much of anything else for that matter.

After Smaug had reached his brothers hoard he had succumbed to the dragon sickness himself nearly instantly. They had fought over the gold. At the end neither of them had won or lost, but the destruction they had created was huge. Smaug had flown further north to seek his own gold, his brother had flown west to find a new, larger treasure, and the humans had send out an army to kill the remaining shape-shifters. 

Smaug hadn't heard of his family's death until decades after it had happened. Being sure that he and his brother were the only living shape-shifters left, he had made the decision to never again return to his human form so that at least he wouldn't be killed. After all, dragons were near indestructible. But a human, a human could be killed with a single puff of his breath. 

Driven mad by grief and the still lingering dragon sickness he had travelled even further up north until he had come across the kingdom of Erebor. He had claimed it's treasures as its own and lived there comfortably for many years. Always in his dragon form, and always buried beneath tons and tons of gold. 

And than you had come. Or rather, first the halfling, than the dwarves, and than you. 

The halfling he had found amusing, only there was something about his smell that he didn't quite trust. Than there were the dwarves, they made him furious. But still, there was something about the smell of that group of intruders that he had seemed to have smelled before. Only it wasn't human, nor dwarf, nor elf, nor anything else that he could place.

As he was flying towards Laketown he saw you for the first time. You had jumped up as a human and flown away as a dragon. He was taken aback, not only by your control over both forms and the strength you seemed to posses, but also by the fact that you simple were, that you existed. He had tried to speak, but you had spoken first.

"Surrender or die, your choice." You had calmly said to him as you were flying in his direction.

He couldn't think of anything to say back to you, and you had mistaken his silence as a choice to fight. 

"Fine," you had said, "your dead it will be." 

You had surrounded him with your fire, disorientating him. The next thing he knew was that you were crashing down up him from above, forcing him into the icy waters of the lake. The cold that the water send rippling through his body had nearly paralysed him. But he had somehow managed to break through the water's surface and to regain his previous altitude. The only thing that he hadn't realised was that he was still flying towards Laketown. At least, not until he felt a thick iron shaft impale his side. 

He was gasping for breath, clawing at the air to try to keep afloat. But to no avail. He was falling now, and you were soaring above him. And that's when it hit him: you probably didn't know that he was like you. That you weren't the only one. And he felt both sorrow and anger. Not for his own dying, but for you having to live on alone. 

So he made a decision he had thought he would never again make: he changed back into his human form. 

Once it had been easy to do, now not so. He didn't know whether it was because he was dying or because the last time he had done it was many lifetimes ago, but the change took way longer than he remembered it would. And as he was changing he could see you above him change too. 

Somehow the impact on the ground hadn't killed him. His smaller human form had made it possible for him to fall on a wooden structure and stay clear of the icy waters below that he certainly would've plummeted into if he had still been in his dragon form. And as he was laying there amongst the flames, he saw a human step through them. You had kneeled beside him, he knew it had been you because of the way your eyes were shaped. You held his hand as he lay dying.

"Why didn't you surrender?" You had asked

"I don't know." He had answered. 

The image of your tears falling amongst the flames was the last memory he would ever form.


End file.
